RE: Telepathology Systems

Jamie Erickson,
I have used a system called Pax-it. You can review the system features by
going to its website. I am not sure what the site is, but if you search for
"Paxit" you'll find the website. My overall impression of the system for
telepathology was favorable. I am not familiar with Apollo. What I found
after capturing an electronic image was a strong need for annotation and
adding editorial comments to the images. Currently, we are using a Sony
DXC-960MD video camera and a Kodak DCS200 digital camera. The digital
camera provides superior quality for printing, but lacks to ability to view
images "live". When reviewing the technical notes for the video cameras,
two important features for video cameras are resolution and color fidelity.
Resolution is defined in "TV lines", the higher the better. Color fidelity
is improved when the camera has a 3 chip CCD design. After capturing the
images, we use adobe Photoshop with a jazz drive for editing and storing the
images. We will be upgrading our systems and are currently reviewing
available software and hardware.
The system uses a video capture board and a modem for transmitting images.
Our company has teleconferencing between sites [US and France], so we use
the video output from the Sony camera and a teaching microscope. The
pathologist in the US view the images on a large TV while the image is
transmitted to a TV screen in France where the pathologists in France can
view the live images. This arrangement seems to work fine, but the
resolution is marginal. During my review of hardware, improving resolution
is one point of interest. Hope my description of how I use a
"telepathology" system helps you in your decisions.
Regards,
Matt Kosiak
Manager, Anatomic Pathology/Nonclinical Safety Assessment
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer
Matthew.Kosiak@rp-rorer.com